Background Abilities for a D&D Gameworld (Long, sorry)

[Dwolvesbane]

Im developing a system that uses rules similar to those for flaws but also gives the charachter access to Backgrounds (Positive) and Curses (Negative). The basic Idea is that giving your charachter a Flaw or Curse gives you a point that you can spend on Gaining another Feat, or a Background appropriate to your charachter. I want some help from you guyscomingup with rough Ideas for Backgrounds and Curses I could use.

In order to help this process out, I shall recount the basic history and some of the more interesting particulars of the world of Darkhelm, the Setting that I am developing this system for. As I have only developed about a third of the world to any great depth I will be updating the info from time to time.

So anyhow:

The idea begins with cosmology. This world exists in a cosmology consisting of three wheels that behave like gears. The largest one consists ofomstly inert planestuff, but a small section of it is the very dangerous Far Realm. The next ring in consists of the outer planes, your heavens, hells, etc.etc. The final ring consists of the Inner planes, including the material plane. These three rings wove arround each other like three gears.

In one unfortunate time, about 20 years removed from the present, a horrible convergance occured. The Material Plane touched against both Battor (The Nine Hells) and The Abyss. To make maters worse, at the same time thse two planes converged with the Far Relm.

Darkhelm was a normal land, it had its share of problems with Orcish Hordes and Vampire Infiltrations, but these problems were kept mostly undercontroll by the forces of good. On the worlds largest continent the forces of good had several advantages.

The First was unity. There was a banner for all good folk to flock to. The Empire of Aelrand claimed jurisdiction where others would not. The other nations and races of the continent were not ruled by them, but would almost certainly flock to a call for allies to help defeat Evil.

The Second advantage also belonged to men, though they had not built it. In elder days an ancient race of Elves, the Shaelel, along with the then young race of Dwarves, began work on amost ambitious project. As the Shaelel worked magics of great power, the Dwarves began to build a great tower. This tower reached miles into the sky and from its top one could see every mile of the continent,and from every mile it could be seen as well. At the pinical the Shelel put the pinacle of their magical achivement, a magical lamp and lense so that agreat purifing light could be shined into the dark places. After its creation it was entrusted to the Shaelel to gaurd,but soon the Shaelel began toforsakethe sea which they had once loved so well, and so in a jealous rage The Sea God reduced their number and cursed the remainder to never again touch their beloved Oceans. There numbers reduced and wretched they abandoned stewardship of The Beacon. The following time became known as the Dark Days as Evil gained a foothold in the world.

All of this ended when human priests of The God of Exalted Glory gained controll of The Beacon and turned the whole of the Beacon into a temple-nation. This ushered in the Age of Light, a period of Learning and Goodness

The last great contribution to good in this part of the world came from under its surface. In the middling days of the Dark Days the Dwarves pooled the resources of there greatest preists To summon an Avatar of the Allfather. This Avatar comissioned them to build him a great forge, and when it was complete the Avatar went inside the forge and did not come out for exactly one year, one month, one day,one week and one hour. (This is now a very important unit of dwarven Time measurement called the Forgestay) When he exited the Forge he bore a helm forged of dark metal. This helm gave any wearer great power in combating evil,but if used for long periods of time by any one person it would corrupt them and turn these same powers against good. For that reason a Great citadel was built arround the forge for the Helms safekeeping, and a great order of Dwarves set in place to govern its use. The forge itself remained infused by divine power which has aided many Dwarven Clerics, and only Clerics for any item created in the forge by any but they soon crumbles into dust, in the crafting of Items of great power.

These things were more than enough to ensure the preservation of Good. That is, untill the concordance of planes which, 20 years ago, brought corruption and darkness to the land.

The Abberations of the Underdark, the Illithids and Aboleths, began to expand their territory pushing their neighbors, the Drow and Duergar,closerand closer to the surface. In the end these dark lords took all but a few of the remaining cities of the underdark under their controll. Those who did not surrender or become thralls to these horrible beings fled to the surface or to the few remaining cities. They found no permanent refuge on the surface and so became raiders, invaders, and nomads. Mostof these races took shelter beneath the thick canopy of the Forest of Evalia which protected themfromthe sun during the day when they took their rest.

The underdark was not enough for the great abberations, and soon Illithid raiding parties and groups of abboleth Thralls were encountered on the surface scouting locations for their masters first surface cities. The great forest did not fit into their masters plans so a great fire was started. Before the elves and druids of the forest could respond most of the forest had burned, all that remained was the are around the elven city of Sentinel and a swath of forest in the northwest now kown as The Greenarc. It was to this last bandofforest that the survivng elves and druids came to form the nation of Remainder.

The ash from this fire was manipulated by the vile magic and psionics of the greatest elder brains of the Illithids. The ash now hangs in the sky creating deep dark nights and days which are not much brighter.

The alingment of planes also enhanced the connection between the material and negative energy planes. As such many who once only dreamed of necromantic power now summoned the dead and became feared necromancers.

One such new necromancer has now become one of the most tragic and feared residents of the contitnent.

Althain was a young child of 10 when the forest burned. His village, near the north edge of the woods was spared, but his parents were soon after killed in a raid on his village. The orphan was taken in by a local preist.

The boy learned quickly under the priests tutalage, but some weeks later Althain was nowhere to be found. The priest searched and searched and eventually went up into the mountains where, in a secluded and lonly place he found the boy unconcious on the ground. Arround the boy, drawn in blood, was an ancient sigil that the priest did not recognize. The boy seemed to have no recolection of how or why he came to be there.

Horrible things began to happen in the village. A string of murders reduced the towns population, and the undead horrors that the victims became plauged the village even more. All of this culminated on one horrid night when all of the corpses interred in the village cemetary returned to life as horrible undead creatures. The villagers were systematicaly slaughtered untill only the priest and his young apprentice remained. As the priest raised his holy symbol to halt the undead menace the young boy struck his mentor down with one swift blow. As the village burned the young boy, who was now a perfectly preserved Lich, along with the first of his undead army, went south into the forest where Althain began to build his stronghold- Hightower. Undead poured from this citadel and soon established a necropolis for themselves in the south.

None of this would have been posible if it were not for events happening much further to the east.

A great and evil prescence settled over the Beacon. This unknown prescence corrupted the priests there, leading many astray. A great war broke out in the Beacon and the corrupted priests soon gained the upper hand. Those true priests who did not flee were slain. The victory was not cheap for the corrupted churh,but there remaining numbers began tooutfit the Beacon proper with new lenses and apparatus, making it more powerful than ever. The victory was as short lived as it was expensive, for a curse became laid on them by the true priests. Not only did they lose the ability to controll the Beacon, they were also forced from the tower by the spirits of the slain priests, who pursued them from the tower and then dissapated.

Soon after several great armies arrived on the field at the towers base. The armies began to war for controll of the Beacon, and are still at war today.

The darkhelm citadel came under siege soon thereafter. Within the first week of the battle a dwarf was chosen to wear the darkhelm in battle against the enemy. He wentonto the fieldof battle, but was struck down by a servant of pure evil who, after felling the dwarf, picked up his helm and put it on. The Helm could not stand this and so exploded, killing its wearerand splitting itself into nine pieces which scattered acroos the world.

It was not long after all of the above events had transpired that what remained of human civilization gathered together with the elves of Remainder in a crusade against the new wave of evil. Faced with a common threat Althain and the greatest of the Illithids, Abboleths, and other servants of evil, banded together in a temporary aliance and marched on one of the last citadels of mankind, the Kingdom by the Sea.

The Kingdom by the Sea was a lush and green land separated from the rest of the continent by a region known as the Shallows. The Shallows is a gaint sandy beach which floods over entirely at high tide, separating the kingdom from the rest of the continent.

It was here that the men and elves chose to resist the forces of evil.

As the great horde of the evil armies advanced across the beach,hours away from high tide, they clashed with the armies of humans and elves in a battle that became known as the Battle of 10,000 Banners.

The situation became desparate for the alliance of good, so they chose to use there most drastic of weapons. Those forces that could retreated as mages from the Kingdom by the Sea forced an early high tideand those from the Empire of Aelrand banished the darkness that hung over head and called down the very rays of the sun.

The forces of evil retreated, defeated but not destroyed.

Those are the signifigant events for this continent, more to come when I think it up.

Any suggestionsfor backgrounds and curses would be really helpful, thanks.